4. GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP. F 2 . 215 



in the county will pay. The beds are unfortunately not 

 thick, seldom exceeding twelve inches, but the advantages 

 above-mentioned more than counterbalance this defect. 

 (For further details concerning the ore see page 217. ) 



Slaughterbeck 7iill, sometimes called MichaeV s ridge, is 

 a conspicuous object from every part of Pfoutz's valley. It 

 blocks the entrance from the west, rising above every other 

 range in the township. It is really a fragment of the great 

 Tuscarora anticlinal which has been cut off by the Juniata 

 river from the main body and constitutes an outlier. In 

 truth the whole of the valley is a continuation eastward of 

 the anticlinal ridge of Tuscarora, eroded by long ages of 

 frost, rain, and sunshine. The beds dip eastward at a gen- 

 tle slope, disappearing one after another under newer over- 

 lying ones. The structure of the valley may be easily un- 

 derstood from the map and section on Plate XVIII. 



It will be seen at once that the sandstone of the Tusca- 

 rora range passes down underneath the lower green shales 

 of the Clinton group, these beneath the Iron sandstone and 

 this beneath the upper green shale, fossil ore, and sandrock. 

 Over all these lie the Onondaga shale, the Lower Helder- 

 berg limestone, and the Hamilton group of Wild Cat ridge. 



Wild Cat xalley composes the southern part of Green- 

 wood township. It is broad and open, intersected with 

 ridges running lengthwise, some of which are steep and 

 wooded, and others gently sloping and cultivated. Through 

 this valley Wild Cat creek flows into the Juniata, carrying 

 almost all the water that runs off its surface. Its head 

 springs are in Wild Cat ridge and Buffalo mountain and on 

 the water-shed between the two rivers, which here lies 

 wholly in Greenwood township. 



The northern portion of this valley lies for the most part 

 on the green shales and shalestones of the Chemung, yield- 

 ing as usual a soil of little fertility. Its southern part, on 

 the red sandstone and shale of the Catskill, is of much bet- 

 ter quality for farming, and as in other parts of the county 

 the Catskill soil compares favorably with the geologi- 

 cally older red shale land of Pfoutz's valley and the west 

 of the county. 



